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Thursday, 30 June 2011

The exam season part 2

If you managed to negotiate part one of the be-your-own-pony-book-hero exam, here is part 2.

Probability Paper

A. Rank the following outcomes in order of probability, showing your working:

An evil tempered stallion has entered the yard:

a. The livery yard owner warns you against going anywhere near the horse. So you don’t.

b. You creep up to the yard in the dead of night and sneak into the evil stallion’s box to lay soft hands on his neck. You know the two of you have a special connection.

c. After much struggle, you and you alone rescue the evil stallion, but it will take you at least 12 books before you have any sort of connection.

d. The evil stallion is to be put down as he is Beyond Saving. You and your friends come up with a cunning plan to save him.

B. Work out, using examples, the probability of the following appearing in a book published during the last ten years:

a. Unicorns

b. Mythical sky ponies

c. Parelli/natural horsemanship/TT/equine yoga

d. You and your very ordinary pony jumping a 3’ course as a matter of course. And winning the showing too.

C. The riding school you attend is run by a single lady of uncertain years. She is taken seriously ill and rushed off to hospital. What will happen to the riding school?

a. The owner’s daughter will turn up to run the school, delighted to have this opportunity to help her mother and turn the school into a really top-flight establishment, which she does.

b. The owner’s daughter will turn up to run the school. She is a fiend in human form, intent only on making money out of the hapless ponies, and indeed, you. You and your friends band together to get her out.

c. The owner's daughter will turn up to run the school. She is not in fact the owner's daughter, but a property developer intent on covering the lovely fields with soulless boxes. You and your friends band together to get her out.

c. Fortunately it is the start of the summer holidays, and you and your cousins are all staying at the stables anyway. Gathering together your weeks of experience at running a stable, you keep the old place going until the owner is able to return, dripping gratitude and offering years of free rides.

External examiner, Linda Newbery, adds a supplemental question:

You are at an auction when a poor, bedraggled, unloved pony looks at you with its melting brown eyes. Will it:

a. be sold to the knackerb. nearly be sold to the knacker, but you and your friend manage just in time to scrape together a few pounds to buy itc. turn out to be lame and decrepitd. turn out to be a brilliant show-jumper whose talent only you have discovered?

4 comments:

You are at an auction when a poor, bedraggled, unloved pony looks at you with its melting brown eyes. Will it:a) be sold to the knackerb) nearly be sold to the knacker, but you and your friend manage just in time to scrape together a few pounds to buy itc) turn out to be lame and decrepitd) turn out to be a brilliant show-jumper whose talent only you have discovered?